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This is the published version of a paper published in Nordic Journal of Vocational Education andTraining.

Citation for the original published paper (version of record):

Holmgren, R. (2014)

Reformed firefighter training program in Sweden: Conflicting instructor conceptions of

professional learning.

Nordic Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 4(2)

http://dx.doi.org/10.3384/njvet.2242-458X.14v4i2a5

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Permanent link to this version:http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-96589

NordYrk - ISSN 2242-458X – Magazine

Nordic Journal of Vocational Education and Training Vol. 4 2014

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This is a reviewed article

Reformed firefighter training program in Sweden: conflicting instructor

conceptions of professional learning

Robert Holmgren

Abstract

In 2003, the content and form of Swedish firefighter training were reformed. New

curricula and guidelines were implemented, instructors from different fields of knowledge were

recruited and the training program was extended. In this study, 29 instructors were interviewed

with a view to identifying and analyzing the salient conceptions of professional learning among

them and how their conceptions have been affected by, and have affected, the implementation

of the new training program. The results show that the dominant conception among fire and

rescue instructors continues to be adaptation-oriented, and that it has not changed significantly,

despite revised training goals and challenges from the development-oriented attitude prevalent

among the risk and safety instructors. It is also shown that this fundamental contradiction

between instructor conceptions is manifested in several dilemmas and conflicts during the

negotiation and implementation phases of the new training program.

Introduction

In connection with the enactment of the Civil Protection Act (Swedish Code of

Statutes 2003:778), with its focus on increasing civil protection against accidents as well as

preventive action, Swedish firefighter training was also reformed in line with the new

legislation. The goals, contents and guidelines of the earlier basic training program were

broadened in the new Accident Prevention Training Program (SMO) with the aim to increase

the competence of the rescue services’ personnel and also to qualify students for other

professions in the risk and safety field. Briefly, the increased remit meant that the earlier rescue

and operative orientation towards fire and rescue (R) was supplemented with a proactive risk

and safety (S) component, and that these two primary components were to be considered

equally important (Swedish Rescue Services Agency, 2001a).

The firefighter training reform also meant that the training program was extended

from 15 weeks to 2 years and was given post-secondary education status. Furthermore, the

changes in the SMO training objectives and guidelines clearly indicated a desire to supplement

the previous experience-based knowledge orientation with science-based approaches and

knowledge. Despite this development towards increased academization, the new program

cannot be classified in terms of professional, semiprofessional or pre-professional, but rather as

a professional training program that has taken a few steps towards being able to prepare students

for professions

…that, in any respect, are organized, relatively autonomous carriers and mediators

of societally sanctioned abstract knowledge systems which provide the ability to

perform duties that are perceived as difficult, skilled and valuable to the

public/client (Brante, 2009:28. Author's translation).

Given these changes and based on the concepts of adaptation-oriented and

development-oriented learning (Ellström, 2006, 2010) and activity theory (Engeström, 1987,

2001), this article draws attention to the firefighter training instructors’ conceptions of



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professional learning and how these have been affected by, and have affected, the

implementation of the new training program.

A review of the research literature shows that there are very few studies on

firefighter training compared to other vocational training fields. It appears that instructor and

teacher conceptions of professional learning have mainly been studied in the fields of teacher

education (eg Hammerness et al., 2005) and medical education (eg Bleakley, 2006), whereas

such research into firefighter training seems to be more or less lacking. However, work-related

learning has been studied among students (Göransson, 2004) and among firefighters (Sommer

& Njå, 2011). Furthermore, the conceptions of professional firefighters (Baigent, 2001;

Ericsson, 2010), as well as opportunities and barriers to professional development, have been

addressed (Kobziar et al., 2007 and Butler & Goldstein, 2010). Finally, the need for changes in

the rescue services is emphasized in international research. The one-sided focus on operational

orientation and prescriptive approaches is not considered to meet contemporary safety and

preparedness requirements in societies undergoing rapid change in several areas (Baigent et al.,

2003; Childs, 2005).

Given these starting points and the identified gap in the research literature, this study intends

to answer the following questions: i) What conceptions of professional learning is prominent

among firefighter training instructors? and ii) In what ways have these conceptions affected and

been affected by, the negotiation and implementation of the SMO training program?

SMO training course in brief

The SMO training program is a two-year basic tertiary program which qualifies

students for work in the Swedish rescue services, but also for risk and safety work in municipal

administration, government authorities and industry.

The general objectives of the SMO training program (Swedish Rescue Services

Agency, 2002) include the requirement to develop students’ cooperation and problem-solving

and increase their ability for independent decision-making and conscious actions. It is further

emphasized that, alongside knowledge based on proven experience, students should also

acquire knowledge about current research. In addition, the educational guidelines (Swedish

Rescue Services Agency, 2001b) stress the importance of an exploring and cooperative attitude

in order to promote reflection and dialogue about education-related knowledge and values.

The introduction of the SMO training program meant increasing and diversifying

the training staff with regard to professional and educational background, age and gender.

While the R area recruited mainly male instructors with experience from rescue services, the

introduction of the S area meant that academically-oriented professionals like fire engineers

and social workers were employed, and that more women and younger instructors were

recruited.

Within each college some 20 regular instructors are involved in the training

program together with a number of rescue instructors hired from the rescue services. Finally,

current education statistics reveal that a large majority of the instructors are male and that most

students seek employment in the rescue services after completing their training.

Previous research

The professional firefighter

The firefighter profession is described in the literature by many firemen as a

calling and a profession with strong team spirit and loyalty (Baigent, 2001, Ericsson, 2010).

The internal image of the competent firefighter is largely tied to practical experience, a well-

trained body (Ericson, 2010, 2011) and to someone of concrete use to society through damage-

limiting initiatives (Baigent, 2001). The association between working as a firefighter and a



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heroic status is illustrated in several studies (Baigent, 2001; Göransson, 2004), and Baigent

(2001) claims that this ideal image still sets its mark on the profession. Mastering dangerous

work elements like smoke diving is considered to provide a higher status than caring for or

communicating with people (Baigent, 2001; Tracy & Scott, 2006). In line with this, Tracy &

Scott (2006) point out the clear link that couples firefighting with hetero-normative masculinity,

while Baigent (2001) maintains that these masculinity ideals can also be related to working-

class values. Baigent (2001) further shows that theoretical work is regarded as a more feminine

approach, which is also touched upon by Ericson (2010), which show how these attitudes

contribute to the lower status enjoyed by instructors who work with theory-oriented teaching

than by those who can refer to practical knowledge.

Professional learning in rescue services and firefighter training

Several studies, chiefly within the rescue services, deal with firefighter’s

professional learning. Within these, four themes can be identified, of which the three first may

be termed learning in practice and the fourth as training-based learning about practices: i)

Personal experience of exercises and rescue initiatives may embody knowledge and skills as

“fire sense” (Lloyd & Somerville, 2006; Sommer & Njå, 2011), ii) Through accounts by

experienced firefighters about problem-solving during rescue initiatives, inexperienced

firefighters can take part of a joint experience base consisting of interpretation and assessment

frameworks (Joung & Hesketh, 2006; Lloyd & Somerville, 2006; Sommer & Njå, 2011), iii)

By participating in daily activities the less experienced can partake of the collective and silent

knowledge manifested in the work methods, procedures and equipment of the workplace (Lloyd

& Somerville, 2006; Sommer & Njå, 2011; Taber et al., 2008) and iv) Training including textual

sources like training manuals and safety prescriptions can provide knowledge about practices.

What is common to these studies is that professional learning is highly related to working life,

where real learning is supposed to take place (Lloyd & Somerville, 2006; Taber et al., 2008).

Göransson’s (2004) study on language-based learning in Swedish firefighter

training shows that similar conceptions about professional learning prevail among firefighter

students. Their view of themselves as practitioners with limited language skills is here

contrasted with the aim of the training to theoretically base and verbalize the professional

knowledge. The study defines, for instance, practical exercises, ready-made recipes and

narratives as important development agents for student learning, while theory-oriented and

problem-based teaching as well as literature studies are perceived as meaningless activities.

Göransson’s conclusion is that neither the rescue services nor the educational environment

contains a tradition of reading, writing and critical examination. The instructors’ role is

described as vague and she asserts that they lack the educational tools to support students in

text-based learning.

Baigent et al., (2003), who have studied educational cultures in fire prevention in

England and their approach to changes in society, show that there exists a multitude of

conceptions about professional learning, ranging from primarily developing a professional

discipline and joint team behavior to strengthening personal development by providing more

space for dialogue and individual responsibility.

Professional learning for the future – development needs and barriers

National and international research points to the needs and obstacles of

development in training oriented towards the rescue services. In Persson’s (2010) study of

interorganizational cooperation in organizations for crisis preparedness great deficiencies are

observed in both organizations’ and individual actors’ familiarity with knowledge acquisition

and learning processes, which leads to fragmentation and neglect of the societal perspective.

Persson’s conclusions are that an increased awareness of knowledge acquisition and learning



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about cooperation is needed within the organizations and that learning through dialogue,

adopting perspectives and reflection should be prioritized. Studies by Kobziar et al. (2007) and

Butler & Goldstein (2010) about American firefighter training highlight the prevailing

opposition against changing the direction of traditional firefighting. Despite directives about

broadening the mission to include proactive risk and safety work as well as organically

sustainable development, the old orientation is still given priority. The authors indicate, for

instance, how established structures and professional practice concur in curbing the necessary

development of these educations.

Theoretical starting points

Adaptive and/or developmental learning

Against the background of the study’s aim to describe and analyze instructors’

conceptions about professional learning, the concepts of adaptive learning and developmental

learning are applied (Ellström, 2001, 2006, 2010). These concepts, which are primarily used to

analyze learning in working life, are also considered relevant to this study, as instructors’

conceptions about professional learning are supposed to have substantial bearing on both

profession and working life. Moreover, these concepts should not be regarded as mutually

exclusive, but rather as complementary aspects which can together create preparedness in

individuals, groups and organizations for everyday expected tasks as well as for unexpected

situations and problems (Ellström, 2001).

Adaptive learning emphasizes individual and group adaptation to and mastering

of extant conditions. It may concern institutional demands on following directives that have

been set up and on routinely learning to master tasks and methods. The basis of adaptive

learning is the logic of implementation whose endeavor is to reduce variation, diversity and

uncertainty in favor of promoting consensus, standardization and reliability in performing one’s

tasks. This form of learning may be salient also when individuals are socialized into an

organization, which is a matter of adopting the code for how one should or must think and act

in various situations. When unexpected problems occur there is a risk, however, that adaptive

learning and routinized acting are not sufficient to understand the origin of the problems and

offer guidance about future action. Ellström (2001, 2006) therefore underlines the importance

of providing space within an organization for developmental learning, whose aim is to

understand and handle complex situations and problems. Asking “What?” and “Why?” focuses

not only on the solution to problems but rather on the use of increased knowledge and reflection

to identify and define the situation, task or problem. One important prerequisite for facilitating

developmental learning is, according to Ellström (2010), the creation of action space for

experimenting and practically exercising alternative actions.

Activity theory

In order to analyze instructors' conceptions of learning and changes in these over

time Engeström's (1987) activity theory model has been used. In this theory, man's

consciousness as inseparably bound with the activity and the human mind's social nature is

emphasized Engeström, 1987). In other words, the instructors' conceptions are regarded as

existing and evolving in a specific training activity and this activity is not seen as an externally

influencing context, but rather as a creative power which is directly involved in the creation of

the instructors' conceptions. Based on this theory, the study's interest is directed towards change

and development in firefighter training as an object-oriented and mediated activity in order to

understand how instructors’ conceptions are constructed and how they change through

participation in this activity, but also how their conceptions affect and change the



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implementation of the new training program. Figure 1 shows Engeström’s (1999) model

adapted for an analysis of SMO training as an activity.

Figure 1. AT as a model adapted for analyzing SMO instructors conceptions and how they have

been affected by, and have affected, the implementation of the new training program.

In this analysis model, the SMO training program under study is viewed as an

activity where the R- and S-instructors (subjects) individually and collectively (community)

perform various actions targeting the students' learning about preventive and operational action

(object). The activity is mediated by teaching methods, physical tools etc. (tools), by curricula,

guidelines and resource allocation (rules), and by the allocation of tasks, roles, power and status

(division of labor). The object of the firefighter training has both a defining and motivating

function in relation to society and provide the overarching motive for firefighter instructors’

goal-driven actions (Engeström & Sannino, 2010). In other words, tensions may arise between

instructors’ goal-driven actions and the educational activity's overall object (Engeström, 1999).

The historical basis of the activity, and changes caused by contradictions within

an element of the triangle, between elements and/or between different activity systems are

aspects which according to activity theory are significant for activity systems (Engeström,

2001). In this study, this means that the firefighter training has its own history, which has

characterized the elements of the activity and their relationships, and that internal contradictions

between different elements can be driving forces for changes in instructors’ conceptions and

actions, and in the training activity.

The theory also points out that contradictions are often accentuated during periods

of transition, when instability may occur due to changes in the elements and their relationships

(Engeström et al., 1999). Thus, in this study the firefighter training reform is regarded as a

transition from one activity to a partially new activity where changes have occurred in the

overall aim (object), guidelines and structure (rules), staff composition (community) and task-

allocation (division of labor).

Since the historical and systemic aspects of contradictions are not directly

accessible in empirical material but only their manifestations, Engeström & Sanninos (2011)

conceptual model, visualized in Table 1, has guided the analysis.



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Table 1. Manifestations of contradictions and their features (Engeström & Sannino, 2011:375).

Even though contradictions can be driving forces for change, change does not always occur.

Contradictions can both be difficult to define (Engeström, 1993) and be invisible and

indisputable (Murphy & Rodriguez-Manzanares, 2008); invisible because culturally established

views and actions can be seen as taken for granted by the participants, and indisputable as they

may be considered difficult to confront.

Study implementation

This article is based on two interview studies conducted in 2010 and 2012 with a

total of 29 interviewees, 7 women and 22 men. The second study was carried out in order to

extend the data collection with more informants. The first study consists of interviews with 22

instructors from the two firefighter training colleges. The instructors were active in the R area,

the S area or in both areas and their instructor experience varied from 8 months to 26 years. The

selection of informants was made in accordance with the training management’s

recommendations, which were based on an ambition to achieve a representative distribution of

instructor categories, gender and age.

The interviews, which lasted between 60 and 90 minutes, were made at the two

colleges and were recorded with a digital recorder. Inspired by activity theory, an open-ended

and thematically organized interview guide was designed for these studies which consisted of

the following themes: i) The instructors' conceptions of professional learning - i.e. their views

of what students should learn and why and when they believe that learning occurs ii) whether

and how their conceptions have been affected during the implementation of the SMO training

program and iii) whether and how their views have had an impact on the implementation of the

SMO training program.

The analysis of the interviews was carried out in four steps: i) transcribing and

reading the entire interview material, ii) a systematic categorization and empirical coding of all

interviews, based on Hjerm & Lindgren’s (2011) recommendations for the analysis of

qualitative interviews, and iii) a compilation of codes in empirical themes through a

comparative re-reading and interpretation process. This process continued until saturation

occurred and no new themes could be defined (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009). The fourth step was

iv) an analysis of these themes in relation to Ellström’s concepts of adaptation and

development-oriented learning and Engeström's model of activity systems.

The respondents behind the quotations in the results section were categorized on the basis

of each person’s teaching area: R/S, gender and instructor experience (0-3 years = less



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experienced (l.e.) and 3 years’ or more experience = experienced (e.)). The latter borderline is

motivated by the 2-year duration of the training program.

Instructor conceptions about professional learning

Two dominant conceptions of professional learning are prominent among the

instructors. One is widely shared by the R-instructors while the other is most prevalent among

the S-instructors.

Professional learning: learning of specific practical skills for work in emergency services

In this view, which dominates among fire instructors (R), the education should primarily

contribute to developing students’ practical professional skills in the form of familiarity with

equipment, methods and techniques to enable them to operatively handle various kinds of

accidents in a confident and safe manner. The practice and criteria of the rescue services are

often stated as the yardstick for these skills, to which training and teaching should relate. The

training should, in other words, be stamped by the endeavor to educate for and adapt to the

norms and criteria attributed to the professional practice of the rescue services.

This is practical training program, you must feel the stuff, test, instruct, exercise.

It’s a question of getting a feeling of control, that you are confident in yourself and

how things and routines work (R, l.e., male).

We must spend more time on exercises to reach the same level as firefighters who

work in the rescue services (R, e., male).

To enable such learning, the emphasis is on teaching dominated by quantitative training and

drill-type exercises, which are considered to turn knowledge and skills into second nature and

part of the muscle memory. The instructors’ expert judgment of what is supposed to be right

and wrong is further regarded as a much debated but nevertheless established and efficient way

of speeding up the learning of the “right skills”. Hence, learning is supposed to be best served

by a combination of frequently recurring exercises and instructor corrections, which may finally

attain so-called embodied learning, adapted and related by students to the rescue services.

Train something until it becomes second nature that is what they must do to learn

something (R, e., male)

We are very drill-minded here. We run an exercise and then – this was OK and that

was bad and then we go home. But it’s also important, I guess, that we take in more

of the students’ reflections about things they are doing (R, l.e., male).

Professional learning: learning as reflection and understanding of complexity and diversity

Among the instructors within the risk and safety area (S) the conception is that

knowledge oriented towards the understanding of both actions and situations should be the

education endeavor. Ready-made routines and checklists are thus discarded in favor of subject-

integrated learning which can facilitate the understanding of the complexity and the

circumstances prevailing in risk and injury situations and in relation to the resources available.

Prioritizing cognitively oriented knowledge is further considered decisive for promoting

developmental learning with individuals taking their own responsibility.

We must create thinking individuals and that is individuals who have a basic

knowledge that they are then helped to develop further (S, l.e., male).

We can’t teach from a list of steps 1,2,3. That’s what we can do if we are starting

an engine. But in our job we must adapt to the situation all the time. It depends on



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the damage and what the accident looks like. That’s why we have to train thinking

people (RS, e., male).

Within this conception, student learning is primarily linked to follow-up reflection

talks, where implemented actions and exercises can be processed, taking their pre-

understanding, training experience and questions as a starting point. The emphasis on the

exchange of experience and the space provided for students’ own analyses are considered to

help students develop a broader, deeper and verbalized understanding.

The most important thing in learning is to make room for reflection and critical

thinking, to make students analyze themselves and the idea that things are not

guided by rights and wrongs. It is also important that everyone gets a chance to

share their thoughts (S, l.e., female).

Instructor conceptions in negotiation and practice implementation

Fire services vs academia – an encounter between different practices

Earlier firefighter training is described in the interviews as a practice with clear

norms and established teaching routines. Professionally experienced men, often with a

background in the army and a starting point in well-tried and qualified professional experience

instructed and took charge to help young men from the rescue services to acquire the relevant

operative knowledge and skills. There was thus a direct link between the content and work

forms of the training and profession and a distinct hierarchy. In the current training program,

most instructors in the R area are men with experience of the rescue services and the previous

training program, and the area is described as clearly founded in the exercise-related norms and

routines of the earlier training program. Parallel with this area runs the S area, developed by

academically trained instructors whose experience derives from other professional practices.

Many of them are women, several of whom are young and have relatively recently completed

their education. The design of the S area is described as something new created within the

training program at the introduction of academic teaching forms.

Within the S area they had no history to fall back on so they created quite a lot of

new things. It was fire engineers and academics that started and we probably ended

up closer to a university-like approach. Within the R area we inherited the 15-week

training program, which was more of a controlling nature. Due to this we keep

using the same exercises and concepts even though they should have been adapted

to a new group of students (SR, e., male).

Negotiations about training design and resource allocation

It further emerges from the interviews that the implementation of the training

program has been characterized by continual negotiating between the R and S instructors with

respect to which conception should have interpretative privilege in the design of the training

program and how resources should be allocated. It also seems clear that this negotiation has

been dominated by the R instructors, for example in discussions about the aim and direction of

the program. Among R instructors the transformation of the educational direction is described

in terms of misleading professional preparation, and it is claimed that the present allocation of

time and resources is at the expense of the necessary proficiency training. Among the S

instructors, who advocate more integrated and science-based understanding, this negotiating is

rather described as a subordination of the minority, which has to adapt itself to the R instructors’

needs of educational space and resources.



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I think that in SMO they overshoot the mark in the theoretical modules. Excuse my

expression, but there are a lot of academics sitting there demanding academic

reports, but the students are not supposed to become academics. They lose training

on the practical side – it is supposed to become second nature and produce

instinctive reaction. (R, e., male).

There is an enormous focus on rescue, so the risk perspective comes second all the

time. Maybe it’s because our voices are fewer. (S, l.e., female).

What the interviews also illustrate is that the dominance of the R-instructors'

conception and goal-driven actions can be maintained through stable structures that promote

rescue-oriented resource allocation as well as through recruitment profiles that give chief

priority to professional experience and subject competence. The opportunities for the S

instructors to place the S area on a par with the R area, as well as the transition of the entire

training program towards a more integrated and process-oriented approach, are thus limited in

favor of continued stability in line with current norms.

The S parts demand less resources, an instructor can manage a 4-week course on

his own, while an R course may require 8 instructors per day for 4 weeks. To stitch

together these courses is pretty hard and complex (R, e., male).

If there’s something that should be taken away, it is the S parts and not the R parts.

But society develops fast and we lack resources to develop the S area. (S, l.e.,

female).

When instructors are recruited it is above all professional experience and technical

knowledge that is asked for, rather than pedagogical knowledge. Then they add a

little pedagogy and you suddenly become an instructor (S, e, female).

Historically rooted conceptions about the profession

The R instructors’ high status and continued dominance in the training program can be further

related to an established image of the firefighter as primarily an experienced man who actively

fights fires and saves lives. It emerges from the interviews that this image is still looked upon

as characterizing professionally related conceptions both in municipality rescue services and in

the current firefighter training program. This image is, for example, described as being

reproduced in educational films and in the interaction between teacher instructors and affirming

students as well as in the heteronormative assessment to which women instructors and students

are exposed.

It is so established in municipalities and in the rescue services that you wait for

something to happen before you act, and to change this attitude is a tough deal.

Most rescue operation heads and municipal representatives probably realize this,

but at the firefighter level they think that their operative work is neglected (SR, e.,

male).

The image presented about the training program in advertising films is totally

wrong. Students see a surrealist picture in a film about a strong fireman who is

made into a hero (S, e., male).

Since I have been around as a rescue team leader for a number of years I am raised

to the skies by the students. They swallow whatever I say. Because most of them

want to become firefighters they think that this is a person who really knows the job

(SR, m. e., male).



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To be a woman instructor in a male-dominated profession like this means that I

have to be ten times as good as a male colleague. It’s much easier to criticize me

and question my competence, something nobody would dream about telling a man.

It’s the same for our women students, too (S, e. female).

Change ambitions and change resistance

It is mainly among the S instructors that voices are raised about the necessity of

changing the training program in line with reform intentions and legal changes. At the same

time there is evidence of a strong resistance to change, based on established conceptions about

professional learning as well as on teaching tradition and training program structure, all of

which is considered to contribute to the very slow transformation progress in the program. What

is specifically mentioned is the strong propensity among the R-instructors to stick to well-tried

concepts and routines as well as structural obstacles such as increased division of labor, subject

specialization and a heavier workload, which taken together contribute to limiting the

opportunities for dialogue and development initiatives in the training program.

The SMO program with its orientation towards preventive action is exactly what is

requested in society today and this was also the intention of the law. But it is hard

to break with the tradition that has developed for so long within fire services. The

firefighter program basically looks the same as it did in 1986, when the Rescue

Services Agency started it. (S, e., male).

Within R they trust to their tried-out concepts and routines and are not that keen on

bringing in anything new. More than pointing out concepts that are good and not

diversity. Within S people are looking more for new research that can enrich the

teaching and suggest alternative approaches. (SR, e., male).

Even if you find ambitions here and there it’s so easy to fall back on old-fashioned

whole-group teaching and communication in the field, with the instructor showing

everything and just keeps talking. There’s a feeling that there is no time for

changing teaching. Some instructors have upwards of 35-36 classes a week (S, e,

male).

It tends to become more and more subject-based. We used to be generalists, but

now everything is split, I’m afraid. We don’t cooperate and we don’t know what the

others are doing (SR, e., male).

Analysis

The analysis of the results shows that the conception of professional learning that

is dominant among the R instructors, i.e. extensive skills training following the recipes and

instructions and embodied learning, largely appears to be oriented toward what Ellström, (2001,

2006, 2010) defines as ‘adaptation-oriented learning’. Although some R instructors express a

need to combine adaptation-oriented learning with reflection and understanding, it seems that

the dominant view remains and continues to be reproduced by new, younger instructors.

Furthermore, it appears that this orientation is reinforced by their argument that the training

should primarily be focused on the demands of the emergency services. Hence, the driving

motive seems to be to train students for a taken-for-granted professional practice and, by

adapting the training program to this practice, maintaining the historical link between training

and profession. The findings regarding this dominant conception also touch upon results from

previous research in rescue services and firefighter training, for example the importance of

being able to operate safely in hazardous rescue operations (cf. Baigent, 2001), actions based



11

on ready-made recipes and instructions (cf. Lloyd & Somerville, 2006), that learning largely is

about embodied learning (cf. Sommer & Njå , 2011) and that it is practical experience with the

support of experienced male experts that form the basis of the development of the firefighter's

professional competence (cf. Ericson, 2010, 2011; Tracy & Scott 2006).

The S-instructors' conception, however, can be seen as being more oriented

towards developmental learning with the emphasis on declarative and developmental

knowledge that can prepare students to handle complexity and diversity. They believe that an

important aspect in the students’ acquisition of an understanding of complexity is to involve

the integration of subject knowledge of various kinds and to point to alternative approaches

based both on proven experience and research-based knowledge. Part of this approach concerns

talking about learning in connection with actions where students are allowed to try and fail, but

especially during subsequent reflections where the participants’ different experiences and

interpretations of situations and actions can be verbalized and problematized. This notion of

learning may thus be said to be in line with the conclusions presented by Baigent (2001),

Göransson, (2004) and Persson, (2010), who all highlight the necessity of dialogue and

reflection in order to develop learning within rescue training and teaching.

A further analysis of the results, based on the activity theory model (Engeström,

1987, 2001) and visualized in Figure 2, shows that the R instructors' conception of professional

learning can be traced to the prevailing views in the previous training program and to

approaches attributed to firefighters working in the rescue services. A consistent picture is given

of how their conception is reproduced over time and that this conception is rooted in the

operational orientation of the previous training program and the rescue services. The R-

instructors' efforts to focus the program on work in the rescue services thus suggest that the

object of the previous training program and the rescue services, which is chiefly operational,

still has a great impact on how they respond to the new twofold training object (preventive and

operational orientation). The fact that both the firefighter training and the rescue services have

had an expanded object for many years and that the training qualifies students for other

professions are thus aspects which do not seem to affect the consensus view of the R instructors.

A comparison of the R instructors’ conception and that of the S instructors', which is more

oriented towards the new educational goals, also strengthens the impression that the differences

in conceptions are fundamentally about how these instructor groups view the new training

object.

For the R instructors, this object can be described as students' professional

learning for operational fire and rescue work. This view of the object can also be seen as being

heavily influenced by the object (A) and the rules (B) of the previous training program and by

the rescue services, namely that professional learning and professional practice are primarily

all about operational work. Among the S-instructors, the object can be seen as students'

professional learning about preventive risk and safety work as well as operational fire and

rescue work. This broader view of the object means that training can be related to a broader

labor market but it might also be said to contain an ambition to make the training a driving force

for development in the firefighter profession. In this analysis, the relationship between these

different conceptions of the object is seen as a fundamental contradiction (1), which means that

the object of the firefighter training cannot be regarded as being collectively shared by the

instructor community.

The analysis further shows how this contradiction has had an impact on the

negotiations about how the training program should be designed and implemented. As the

results show, there appears to be an interaction with several tensions, where the R instructors

seem to have a strong interpretative privilege compared to the S instructors when it comes to

how training elements should be prioritized, planned and executed and how resources should

be distributed. The fundamental contradiction is manifested in this interaction as dilemmas and



12

conflicts within the working teams (community), as it seems that their opinions differ on how

training guidelines should be interpreted and resources allocated (2) and on the distribution of

power and status (3) that prevail in the training program.

Figure 2. Defined contradictions within SMO training program.

Using Engeström & Sannino’s (2011) conceptual model, the way in which the R

instructors criticize and argue about the twofold object of the training, the academization of

professional learning and the reallocation of resources can be described as an indication that

they perceive these changes as a conflict. Given their effort to maintain their conception of

professional learning and the “old” object of the training, the results show that they have

successfully managed to affect the design and structure of the training program in the direction

they desire (cf Kobziar et al., 2007; Butler & Goldstein, 2010). By arguing for the need for

extensive practical exercises, additional experience and subject-based expertise, earlier

structures for resource allocation and recruitment appears to continue to be reproduced in the

new training program. The S instructors, by contrast, who describe the twofold object of the

training as necessary in view of developments in society, point to several dilemmas that arose

during the negotiation and implementation of the new training program. Despite their intentions

to develop and integrate the S area in line with the new curricula and training guidelines, they

point to limited opportunities to do so due to inadequate resources and their having only a

marginal influence due to the existing power and status distribution (cf Baigent, 2001, Ericson,

2010). The analysis thus indicates that the S-instructors' conception of professional learning has

not had any significant impact on the implementation of the training program.

Conclusions Instructors’ conceptions of professional learning can be studied in many different

ways. In this study, the use of the concepts of adaptation and development-oriented learning

and activity theory have enabled an analysis from a practice and change perspective. By

viewing the instructor’ conceptions as being historically and socio-culturally based in an

educational activity, and education reform as a potential driving force for change in an activity,

it has been possible to analyze not just the instructors’ conceptions as separate phenomena, but

also how they affect, and are affected by, the educational reforms.



13

The reformation of the firefighter program can be seen as a radical change of the

aim, content and form of the training program where the intention was to enhance the

competence in the rescue services and to enable new professional careers. As the study shows,

this change has contributed to the emergence of a fundamental contradiction between the

instructor groups’ different conceptions of professional learning and of the object of the

training. The fire and rescue instructors’ operational and adaptation-oriented conception seems

to be continually reproduced with reference to a taken-for-granted and stable professional

practice. It is also evidenced that it has affected the negotiation and implementation of the new

training program. However, the risk and safety instructors' conception, which in view of

developments in society is oriented towards an integrated and development-oriented learning,

appears to have been marginalized. In this respect, the established distribution of power and

status within the training program seems to have been an important aspect that has contributed

to their ideas not being considered in the negotiation and implementation.

Finally, it can be concluded that the defined contradictions in firefighter training

have so far not been sufficient driving forces for change, either in the dominant adaptation

oriented conception or in training practice in general. Rather, the design and structure of the

new training program can be described as a mere costume change, as the driving conception of

professional learning and training purposes in many respects is the same as before. In light of

the discrepancy that seems to exist between the reform intentions and the dominant instructors’

conception, it would seem that active and long-term efforts are required to achieve the necessary

balance between the twofold object of the training and between adaptation and development-

oriented learning. Such a "balanced" firefighter training may likely be a major driving force in

the development of the firefighter profession. If this change is not achieved, there is a risk that

various stakeholders will demand that the training program be divided into two separate parts.

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